Hitting an exercise multiple times a day

[Wonton]

What is everyone opinion of what would happen if you did one set close to failure on an exercise several times a day , every day.??

Say for instance you have a set of dumbell in the office and every few hrs you pick them up and bang out 12-15 reps and you do this every day.
Or do a set of pullups to failure several times a day or Bulgarian split squats.??

I think as long as you had a steady protein intake that the body would adapt to the constant stimulation and grow to keep up with it.
That could be totally backwards but I remember a mechanic we had that did pushups constantly , 5-6 times a day he would do a set of weight pushups to failure and he had some pretty insane triceps and pretty impressive chest. Another guy I know has been a brick mason his whole life and have the most insane forearms I've ever seen.
NOW , neither of these guys were avid gym rats but stayed in good shape.

Just wondering if anyone ever tried something extreme lime this to bring up a lagging body part

See the thing is is probably that you're probably a little bit bored want to try different things just for the hell of it let's try it for the hell of it see what happens you report back to us and tell us if it works

 

[buck]

Robert Kennedy wrote about such things in his books in the 80's. How to add inches to your arms in 1 day etc. A guy i worked with years ago brought his curl bar to work and set up a pulley and would pump his muscles up repeatedly through out the day. And did that for at least a year and got some good size from it. But once he quit lifting like that it all disappeared. so i can't say how much was protein synthesis and how much was just from blood being in the muscle. I can see doing something repeatedly all day 1-2 days a week could have benefit but not sure about the recovery if done ever day.

 

[Type-IIx]

Would you adapt? Sure. But the question is: what adaptation are you seeking? Your hypothetical does not contain enough information for us to determine whether you'd achieve continuous hypertrophy/growth.

This is because we don't know whether your dumbbell is a mere 20 kg/45 lb dumbbell, or whether it's adjustable up to 90 kg/200 lb.

If you have a fixed weight 20 kg dumbbell, expect only to develop hypertrophy up to a point (assuming an untrained or relatively early training status) and afterwards adaptation towards muscular endurance (if increasing sets linearly) rather than hypertrophy.

In any case, even if you are applying progressive overload by increasing weight over time, this is the most inefficient method imaginable for hypertrophy/growth.

By taking long rest intervals and distributing workload throughout a long period, there is no significant metabolite accumulation or glycolytic stressors. These factors serve to contribute to the effective reps of your work: i.e., by using some form of intensity methods (DC, muscle rounds, cluster sets, myo-reps) hypertrophy could be achieved far more efficiently. Optimal hypertrophy depends on recovery, so, an optimal frequency might be 2-3x weekly depending on muscle group.

 

[Dens228]

I say go for it. The guy with the thickest chest I knew said he was in the marines prison for 6 months and he and friends did push-ups all day, off and on, in every hand position and rep range imaginable based on what card they pulled from a deck of cards. He said that’s what built his chest, not bench press, dumbbell press, flies, etc.
I have also read about Eastern European power lifters that lifted 5 times a day, 25 minutes each session, as a means to get stronger, and it worked.

It was the Olympic style lifters. The other thing to keep in mind for their workouts is that much of their workout consists of explosive lifts with little to no resistance on the negative portion of the movement. They finish a clean they drop it, they finish a press, they drop it, they finish a jerk they drop it. We all know the added stress on a muscle from the controlled negative.
Years ago I had an actual copy of weekly workouts for Bulgarian and USSR Olympic lifters. Mainly the actual lifts with little accessory work.

 

[marssel]

reminds me of the... was it rich piana vid how to put an inch on your arms in a day or something crazy. that vid obviously just click bait

long as you can recover it would work.

Branch did it and Palumbo and Matt Duvall did it.

 

[marssel]

What is everyone opinion of what would happen if you did one set close to failure on an exercise several times a day , every day.??

Say for instance you have a set of dumbell in the office and every few hrs you pick them up and bang out 12-15 reps and you do this every day.
Or do a set of pullups to failure several times a day or Bulgarian split squats.??

I think as long as you had a steady protein intake that the body would adapt to the constant stimulation and grow to keep up with it.
That could be totally backwards but I remember a mechanic we had that did pushups constantly , 5-6 times a day he would do a set of weight pushups to failure and he had some pretty insane triceps and pretty impressive chest. Another guy I know has been a brick mason his whole life and have the most insane forearms I've ever seen.
NOW , neither of these guys were avid gym rats but stayed in good shape.

Just wondering if anyone ever tried something extreme lime this to bring up a lagging body part

I think it would be overtraining and unless you are new to the sport and I don’t think you are, it would probably be a negative for size. Density and vascularity possibly. You’d be better training it three days a week. Now if it’s a bigger body part I’d be careful at 3 as well and keep it to two. Calves, forearms, neck, traps and abs can take 5 times a week with volume work and if you want to do back or legs I woukd suggest a heavy day and a volume day. The attitude of our working the competition and even yourself is awesome but even the GH and gear only so much can a body take and grow. I know I overtrained in my late 20s and won several shows a year. I got hit by a mail truck and it rolled my training way way back and I actually grew from the limited training. Now if you’re just going to do this like 3-4 times a year or less for fun yeah have at it but if your goal is growth I thing giant sets and drop sets with more frequent sessions say that body part every 4th or 5th day would likely render more favorable results.

 

[Fastlifeo]

I think it depends on your goals. This is a bodybuilding board. Obviously many athletic disciplines, gymnastics for example, train for hours multiple times a day. They can do amazing things on a pullup bar, but they are not training just for size. Functional strength and hypertrophy are different goals.

I’m sorry but bodybuilders are not athletes or even close to being an athlete

 

[jstrong20]

There was much written in Iron Man magazine back in the 70’s about working the same muscle, many many light sets all day long which produced some gains in size but it never stuck.

Yeah it would come up again every so often. Even in the 90s early 2000s I read about it in muscle mags. Did it myself in the early 20s.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Would you adapt? Sure. But the question is: what adaptation are you seeking? Your hypothetical does not contain enough information for us to determine whether you'd achieve continuous hypertrophy/growth.

This is because we don't know whether your dumbbell is a mere 20 kg/45 lb dumbbell, or whether it's adjustable up to 90 kg/200 lb.

If you have a fixed weight 20 kg dumbbell, expect only to develop hypertrophy up to a point (assuming an untrained or relatively early training status) and afterwards adaptation towards muscular endurance (if increasing sets linearly) rather than hypertrophy.

In any case, even if you are applying progressive overload by increasing weight over time, this is the most inefficient method imaginable for hypertrophy/growth.

By taking long rest intervals and distributing workload throughout a long period, there is no significant metabolite accumulation or glycolytic stressors. These factors serve to contribute to the effective reps of your work: i.e., by using some form of intensity methods (DC, muscle rounds, cluster sets, myo-reps) hypertrophy could be achieved far more efficiently. Optimal hypertrophy depends on recovery, so, an optimal frequency might be 2-3x weekly depending on muscle group.

This.

The examples you gave of a guy doing pushups or a general foreman with big forearms are completely different than doing multiple sets to failure throughout a day. We know that constant use will a muscle grow, look at cyclists legs and swimmer's shoulders/back. But do i think its an optimal way to train or grow? No not really.

I also think that if you were truly training hard, you would need a couple warm up sets to fully feel connected to the movement before hitting 1 set.
So what you're thinking of as 5 sets over the course of a day ends up being closer to 10+. Which IMO, is doable in 1 session...but then u should eat and recover. IMO, delaying the recovery and interrupting it several times will impede overall growth

 

[alfresco]

I think it depends on your goals. This is a bodybuilding board. Obviously many athletic disciplines, gymnastics for example, train for hours multiple times a day. They can do amazing things on a pullup bar, but they are not training just for size. Functional strength and hypertrophy are different goals.

That true. Gymnastics. Muscular weight, hell, any weight, is not an advantage.
But muscle it is a by product of their training for hours and hours each days.
Crazy. They are 'little' guys but up close very impressive builds.

I knew some world class rock climbers in Yosemite Valley who worked cleaning
tent cabins all day in Camp Curry. In each cabin they cleaning they did chin-ups
on the door jams all days long, every day they worked. Then they went out
and climbed. It didn't seem to hurt them any. but I never saw big lats on a rock
climber or anything that would be considered 'big' by our standards.

There are many other examples.

But at the end of the day, in these cases, it is all about strength to bodyweight ratio.

 

[alfresco]

It was the Olympic style lifters. The other thing to keep in mind for their workouts is that much of their workout consists of explosive lifts with little to no resistance on the negative portion of the movement. They finish a clean they drop it, they finish a press, they drop it, they finish a jerk they drop it. We all know the added stress on a muscle from the controlled negative.
Years ago I had an actual copy of weekly workouts for Bulgarian and USSR Olympic lifters. Mainly the actual lifts with little accessory work.

I have often wondered how strong Olympic lifters could be if they controlled the eccentric part of the lift, did not drop the weight.

In the great state of Florida, at one point in time, powerlifting on the high school level was a competitive sport. One team in particular won the state championship ten years in a row, were undefeated, a record that I believe still stands. But what is most interesting to me is that they all trained doing strictly negatives.

 

[buck]

The Bulgarians used to train multiple times a day for several days in a row. But that is more strength based as opposed to hypertrophy.

 

[krman]

I think doing this with underdeveloped body parts is a great idea. Just make sure you are recovering enough so you don't get injured.

 

[Fa Seeshus]

All this high volume overload stuff works, but you need to program in de-loading to take advantage of the adaptation and not get overuse injuries/CNS burnout.

I just did a month of training where i was doing some variation of squat in every workout (though often just stuff like thrusters or other functional moves). Of course knees got achy towards the end. After returning back to more normal frequency though the body super-compensates and you end up stronger.

Allot of the gains you get are through increased intermuscular coordination and better movement patterns/mobility. If you are squatting or doing an overhead press or whatever all the time, you can pop into that groove faster. This is especially true with Oly Lift variations.

 

[3BILLS]

Would you adapt? Sure. But the question is: what adaptation are you seeking? Your hypothetical does not contain enough information for us to determine whether you'd achieve continuous hypertrophy/growth.

This is because we don't know whether your dumbbell is a mere 20 kg/45 lb dumbbell, or whether it's adjustable up to 90 kg/200 lb.

If you have a fixed weight 20 kg dumbbell, expect only to develop hypertrophy up to a point (assuming an untrained or relatively early training status) and afterwards adaptation towards muscular endurance (if increasing sets linearly) rather than hypertrophy.

In any case, even if you are applying progressive overload by increasing weight over time, this is the most inefficient method imaginable for hypertrophy/growth.

By taking long rest intervals and distributing workload throughout a long period, there is no significant metabolite accumulation or glycolytic stressors. These factors serve to contribute to the effective reps of your work: i.e., by using some form of intensity methods (DC, muscle rounds, cluster sets, myo-reps) hypertrophy could be achieved far more efficiently. Optimal hypertrophy depends on recovery, so, an optimal frequency might be 2-3x weekly depending on muscle group.

I think im going to listen to rich pianas real life advice over this science based mumbo jumbo

 

[jeroendebleser]

I absolutely take that as a compliment
I think about shit way way to much and when something like this comes to mind I research it a a little then ask opinions. Not so much that I'd implement this because I'd probably be crippled from tendonitis but to possibly stimulate someone else to think. This particular topic had me thinking that about people I've run across that either had jobs that forced them to "over use" a body part or exercise it excessively and it was actually over developed so there might be something to it. I think that stretching and mobility movements would be extremely beneficial this way doing exercises for shoulder integrity.
I've seen alot of newer guys ask similar questions and get blasted for it and I don't agree with that at all , I think it makes new comers to the sport intimidated and will prevent there growth both physically, mentally and emotionally.
I don't care if someone wants to get all trigger happy on me about it , if some other guy was thinking the same thing but was afraid to ask then cool.
The internet is a huge place and you can basically find the answer to anything if you are willing to wade through all the bullshit misinformation. This board his a huge vat of knowledge and we have a pool of some incredibly brilliant people that have forgotten more than alot of people will ever know both from their research and personal experience.
I remember Phil Heron had some ideas on training and nutrition that were against the grain or what is common knowledge in bodybuilding and he was often chastised for it but some of that shit worked.
If you ask opinions on DC training many people will tell you that it's not as effective due to lower volume , but I've never met anyone that tried it and followed it properly that didn't grow. Then you have guys like Milos who's volume and intensity is insane and often has people training 2x a day like that , it obviously "over training" as is common knowledge to the bodybuilding world but if you look at the progress his clients make , there might be something to that shit.
Insulin , how many times have we heard that if you take insulin without HGH you will get fat.??
FUCKING CONSTANTLY , and it's simply false. "Insulin stops fat loss" how many times have we heard that?? Try adding 2iu Humalog before fasted cardio and see if it doesn't help when you are struggling to get that last little bit of fat off.
Masteron , I can't count the times that I've seen people says that masteron doesn't work unless you are under 10% bodyfat. Does it have some chemical aversion to fat that renders it useless??
No that shit is doing it job if you are 38% body fat or 8% , the results are just not as visible , blood work has proven this.
When I asked about supplementing EAA's for real food because I have digestive issues most everyone chimed in with "just eat real food bro" well yea mother fucker that would be ideal but I physically can't soooo , but some people did offer some insight and several message me with some scientific studies.

So in short most of the time I don't ask these questions because it's something I'd like to implement , I ask because I'm curious what others have seen and maybe it will stimulate someone to think outside the box. When you read this initial post did you immediately think "well that dumb , that will never work" or did you pause for a second and think "what if" if it was the second one and you were the the only person that did then the whole point of the post was worth it

Now I see where you are coming from and I understand and agree with it

 

[cal]

Idea thats been around since Paul Anderson days. He would do a set ever hour or two all day but NOT too failure. Also more recently Pavel Tsauloune (no idea how to spell) wrote about it many books. Not really for hypertrophy more for improving neurmuscular coordination to improve lifts not really muscles. Pavel calls it greasing the groove.

 

[marssel]

I’m sorry but bodybuilders are not athletes or even close to being an athlete

You’re definitely not a bodybuilder I see

 

[Type-IIx]

Idea thats been around since Paul Anderson days. He would do a set ever hour or two all day but NOT too failure. Also more recently Pavel Tsauloune (no idea how to spell) wrote about it many books. Not really for hypertrophy more for improving neurmuscular coordination to improve lifts not really muscles. Pavel calls it greasing the groove.

Paul Anderson would train 3 sessions daily x 6 days per week for a 1 - 3 rep working set in each exercise. M, W, F were clean & jerk, clean & press, and snatch plus assistance exercises targeting the upper body. T, R, Sa were squats and variations (1/4 or 1/2 squats).

A sample training block for Anderson:
M, W, F:
Press 145 kg x 2 set
Dumbbell Press 61 kg x 2 dumbbells x 3 rep x 2 set
Snatch 1 rep up to 140 kg
Clean 1 rep up to 182 kg
Deadlift 313 kg x 3 rep x 2 set
High Pull 227 kg x 3 x 3 set
Ad hoc Bench Press up to 200 kg

T, R, Sa:
Back Squat 295 kg 1 - 3 set x 2 rep, 3rd session up to 309 kg
1/4 & 1/2 squat variation up to a claimed 713 kg (unlikely)
In line with what you and others have mentioned: though sub-optimal, this training style moderates volume but maintains intensity, serving to maintain and push up top end strength and inter- & intra- muscular coordination for highly coordinated lifts.

Very sub-optimal for hypertrophy (see: Bulgarian weightlifters, Paul Anderson physiques, for examples of mediocre hypertrophy vs. bodybuilders). This was done back in the 1950s in Anderson's case and in the 1980s under Abadjiev in Bulgaria: aside from serving these goals (coordination, strength) it also served to keep the lifters from chasing tail, boozing, and smoking heavily. It kept them out of trouble.

Pavel promotes high frequency training for maintaining and pushing up inter- & intra- muscular coordination for highly coordinated lifts like the kettlebell snatch, and ramping up sets/volume to promote increased muscular endurance, as these qualities are necessary for Russian kettlebell competition (see also: Pavel's physique, for an example of muscular endurance vs. muscular hypertrophy).

 

[marssel]

Paul Anderson would train 3 sessions daily x 6 days per week for a 1 - 3 rep working set in each exercise. M, W, F were clean & jerk, clean & press, and snatch plus assistance exercises targeting the upper body. T, R, Sa were squats and variations (1/4 or 1/2 squats).

A sample training block for Anderson:
M, W, F:
Press 145 kg x 2 set
Dumbbell Press 61 kg x 2 dumbbells x 3 rep x 2 set
Snatch 1 rep up to 140 kg
Clean 1 rep up to 182 kg
Deadlift 313 kg x 3 rep x 2 set
High Pull 227 kg x 3 x 3 set
Ad hoc Bench Press up to 200 kg

T, R, Sa:
Back Squat 295 kg 1 - 3 set x 2 rep, 3rd session up to 309 kg
1/4 & 1/2 squat variation up to a claimed 713 kg (unlikely)
In line with what you and others have mentioned: though sub-optimal, this training style moderates volume but maintains intensity, serving to maintain and push up top end strength and inter- & intra- muscular coordination for highly coordinated lifts.

Very sub-optimal for hypertrophy (see: Bulgarian weightlifters, Paul Anderson physiques, for examples of mediocre hypertrophy vs. bodybuilders). This was done back in the 1950s in Anderson's case and in the 1980s under Abadjiev in Bulgaria: aside from serving these goals (coordination, strength) it also served to keep the lifters from chasing tail, boozing, and smoking heavily. It kept them out of trouble.

Pavel promotes high frequency training for maintaining and pushing up inter- & intra- muscular coordination for highly coordinated lifts like the kettlebell snatch, and ramping up sets/volume to promote increased muscular endurance, as these qualities are necessary for Russian kettlebell competition (see also: Pavel's physique, for an example of muscular endurance vs. muscular hypertrophy).

Interesting though as stated doesn’t seem to promote growth and doesn’t sound fun and for me fun is important I mean we do shit that sucks to win but day in day out the grind of lifting and going to failure getting that jacked pumped feeling is what gets most of us out of bed so to subside on a 1-3 rep routine seems awful to me